Leyerly v. United StatesLeyerly v. United States
On December 20, 1941, the Congress amended the National Service Life Insurance Act of 1940,
John Robert Leyerly entered the military service on or about March 20, 1941, and died in line of active duty on February 8, 1942, without widow or child. At the time of his death, he had applied for and had been granted National Service Life Insurance in the sum of $2,000, and had designated his brother and sister as beneficiaries. Thus, automatic or gratuitous insurance provided under the 1941 Amendment, supra, in the sum of $3,000 is-payable to his dependent mother or father, if living, in equal shares.
Neither the original nor the Amendatory Act defined the terms “parent,” “father” or “mother,” and to clarify existing legislation, Congress on July 11, 1942, added subsection (f) to Section 601 of the 1910 Act as follows: “The terms ‘parent,’ ‘father/ imcl ‘mother’ include a father, mother,
This lawsuit is primarily a contest between Harry and Eva Alice Taylor, as persons claiming to have stood in loco parentis to the insured, and Helen Leyerly, the natural mother, for the $3,000 insurance. The trial court held for the Taylors and Helen Leyerly has appealed.
Helen Leyerly and Eva Alice Taylor each filed timely claims with the Veterans Administration for the payment of the insurance benefits. The Veterans Administration recognized the natural mother as the person who last bore that relationship to the insured, and accordingly proposed to pay her the insurance benefits. When Eva Alice Taylor’s claim was denied by the Veterans Administration, she brought this suit jointly with her husband, Harry Taylor, in the District Court under Section 617 of the Act of 1940,
The Government answered, admitting the insured’s entry into the service, his death as alleged, and that the sum of $3,000 was payable as automatic or gratuitous insurance to qualified beneficiaries. The answer specifically denied, however, that the Taylors were dependent father and mother within the meaning of the Act. It admitted the filing of a claim with the Veterans Administration by Eva Alice Taylor, and its denial; that a consequent disagreement contemplated by Section 617 existed between her and the government, but specifically denied that her husband had ever filed a claim, or that the requisite “disagreement” existed between the gov--ernment and him. Jurisdiction of the court over the suit of Harry Taylor was challenged.
By way of “counterclaim for interpleader,” the government alleged the filing of a claim for the insurance by Helen Leyerly, the natural mother; that “substantial questions exist (1) as to whether the defendant is obligated for said insurance; and (2) if obligated, whether it is obligated to Eva Alice Taylor, one of plaintiffs herein, or to Helen Leyerly, decedent’s mother, or someone else, pursuant to the provisions of the National Service Life Insurance Act of 1940, as amended, and that in order that all claims to said insurance benefits may be judicially determined and a multiplicity of suits thereby avoided, it is essential to determine the extent, if any, of this defendant’s obligation, and the person or persons to whom this defendant is obligated.” The prayer was that Helen Leyerly be made a party to the suit, and that the court adjudge the liability of the government, if any, and to whom.
Thereafter Helen Leyerly, upon order of the court, was made a third party defendant, and she answered alleging that the father of the insured was deceased; that she was the dependent mother of the insured, and therefore entitled to the proceeds of the life insurance. She specifically denied that Harry Taylor had ever filed a claim with the Veterans Administration, or that a “disagreement” existed between him and the government. She prayed judgment for the amount of the insurance, with interest and attorney fees.
After hearing on the issues as thus cast, the trial court found that the Taylors having reared the insured and acted as his parents since he was five and one-half months old, until he entered the service, stood in loco parentis, and being dependent upon-him for support, were dependent mother and father within the meaning of the Act. The court also found that Helen Leyerly, the natural mother, being unable to rear the insured because of illness, did not last bear the relationship of parent to him, but “relinquished” care, custody and
The government has not appealed from this judgment, but Helen Leyerly’s first contention on appeal is that the court lacked jurisdiction of the subject matter as respects appellee, Harry Taylor, because the prerequisite “disagreement” did not exist between him and the government when suit was filed.
The jurisdiction of the court in this class of cases is conferred by Section 617 of the 1940 Act, as amended by Section 6 of the 1942 Amendment, 56 Stat. 659. It pertinently provides that “In the event of disagreement as to any claim arising under this chapter, suit may be brought in the same manner and subject to the same conditions and limitations as are applicable to the United States Government Life (converted) Insurance under the provisions of sections 19 and 500 of the World War Veterans Act, 1924, as amended i\i * * »
Section 19 of the 1924 Act, as amended,
Construing the foregoing statute, wc have pointed out that a suit on a war risk insurance contract is a suit against the Government, and that one of the conditions of its consent to be sued is the existence of a “disagreement” between the Veterans Administration and the claimant. In other words, a disagreement is a jurisdictional prerequisite to the maintenance of a suit on the insurance contract. McLaughlin v. United States, 10 Cir.,
As a jurisdictional basis for its judgment, the court found that “the plaintiffs; filed a claim for insurance benefits * * *; that said claims were denied by the Administrator of Veteran Affairs, as disclosed by letter dated June 5, 1945.” But appellees admit, as they must, that Harry Taylor did not file a claim with the Veterans Administration, rather they rely upon the claim filed By Mrs. Taylor, its denial, and consequent disagreement, as conferring jurisdiction of the court over the entire subject matter.
The insurance payments being payable to the “dependent mother or father oí the insured, if living, in equal shares,” it would seem that the right of each to the benefits provided should be separate and distinct, and that the claim of one therefor and its denial without reference to the other, would not constitute a “disagreement” as to both. But, it does not necessarily follow that the court did not acquire jurisdiction to hear and determine, the claims of all persons having an interest in the insurance benefits.
The requisite “disagreement” did exist between the United Stales and a person claiming the insurance. An action was
The government does not consent to be sued by implication, and consent to be sued should not be extended beyond the plain terms of the authorizing statute. Price v. United States and Osage Indians,
The plain purpose of the statute authorizing the government to sue and be sued in this loss of cases is to provide a comprehensive and expeditious disposition of the controversy, of which the court is specifically given jurisdiction. There is no good reason to torture the language of the authorizing statute in order to arrive at an irrational result. The liability of the government is not extended nor enlarged beyond the scope of the authorizing statute or the pleadings of the government thereunder. We conclude that the court acquired jurisdiction of the subject matter and of the parties, and was empowered to hear and determine the entire controversy, as cast by the pleadings.
On the merits, it is said that the trial court erred in holding that the Taylors ever stood in the relationship of loco par-entis to the insured, because, as his natural mother, Helen Leyerly was entitled to the insurance in the natural order of things, unless she voluntarily relinquished the right, or was deprived of it by due process of law; that she was at all times mentally incapable of voluntarily relinquishing the right, and therefore could not have been involuntarily deprived of it. It was on this premise that the Administrator determined that Helen Leyerly was entitled to the insurance.
The evidence shows, as indicated by the trial court, that Helen Leyerly became mentally ill soon after the birth of the insured, and that she remained mentally incapable of voluntarily relinquishing or being legally deprived of any right which she possessed as the natural mother of the insured. Thus it must be conceded that if her relationship to her son gave her any vested right to the insurance, she would not lose it by any act
The automatic insurance involved here was first provided by Congress in 1941 as a gratuity to fulfill a moral obligation to the dependents of a serviceman who died in line of duty without having fully availed himself of the insurance benefits accorded by 1he 1940 Act See Congressional Record, July 2, 1912, p. 6116, 6117. The serviceman did not contract for the insurance, and could not direct its disposition. It was within the sole power of Congress to bestow its bounty upon persons of its choice. Accordingly, it specifically directed the manner and order of payment to a prescribed class of beneficiaries, including a surviving dependent mother or fattier.
Thereafter, the Congress recognized that without definitive legislation, it might well be held that only natural parents of the servicemen were eligible to become beneficiaries of the insurance. In order to make its original purposes clear, it took pains to define the terms “parent,” “father,” and “mother” to include not only natural parents, but those who stood in loco parentis to the serviceman for a period of not less than one year prior to his entry into the service. Section 601(f) of the 19-10 Act, as amended, supra.
The proposed amendment was accompanied by explanatory reports which leave no doubt of the Congressional purpose to make sure that the person or persons who last bore and exercised the parental relationship would be recognized as beneficiaries of the automatic insurance. See Senate Report No. 1430, House Report No. 2312, 77th Congress, 2d Session. When the legislation was under consideration by the House, a member of the Ways and Means Committee in charge of it stated that one of its purposes was to place the pare nts who last: bore that relationship in precedence over other parents; “In other words, a person who stood in the relationship of loco parentis to the soldier for not less than a year immediately prior to his entrance into the active service would take precedence over a natural parent.” Concessional Record, July 2, 1942, p. 6117.
It is thus clear that Congress contemplated a relationship or status based upon facts, and not upon the circumstances oí birth. Since loco parentis is a status, not a right, the acquisition of it by the Taylors did not deprive the mother of any right. They simply acquired the status because of the incapacity of the mother to act as the parent. No rights accrued under the legislation until the death of the insured, at which time the right to the insurance depended upon the factum of parental relationship.
The statute does not define the term loco parentis and the common law concept therefore controls. The relationship, as the term implies, is a standing in the place of, or instead of, a parent; one charged fictitiously with a parent’s rights, duties and responsibilities. See Black’s Law Dictionary, p. 604; Vol. 1 Bouvier’s I.aw Dictionary, Rawle’s Third Rev., page 15.22. The rights and liabilities arising out of the relationship are exactly the same as that of a parent and child. Young v. Hipple,
It will be presumed of course that the natural mother last bore the parental relationship, but the evidence here shows without contradiction that when the natural mother became mentally ill and incapable of exercising parental care, the Taylors, as the insured’s paternal aunt and uncle, took him into their home and reared him as their child until he finished high school. The father of the child also lived in the Taylor home for a while, and once suggested that they legally adopt the insured. The natural father eventually went to California and died there without exercising any parental care or contributing to the child’s support. After the mother was discharged from the mental institution, she
It is next argued that if the relationship of loco parentis ever existed between the Taylors and the insured, it was co-existent with the supporting facts, and was terminated when he was no longer dependent upon them for support, education and maintenance. On this 'premise, it is said that the relationship, if existent, terminated when the insured left the Taylor home to enter the Civilian Conservation Corps, or when he returned and went to California, or in any event,' when he entered the military service.
There is authority for the proposition that the relationship, once established, is discontinued or terminated when the parent no longer owes any duty to support and maintain. In other words, “one cannot stand in loco parentis to an adult.” See Howard v. United States, D.C.,
But we think the roots of the relationship, once established, go deeper than that. It is true, support and maintenance are of the essence of natural parenthood, and would therefore constitute an essential element of artificial parenthood. But there is no good reason to hold that the relationship ceases to exist, or could not be perpetuated beyond the age of dependency, see Meisner v. United States, D.C.,
If, as contended, the insured’s entry into the military service operated to discontinue the parental relationship between him and the Taylors, no person standing in that relationship could ever be eligible for the insurance benefits, because under Section 9 of the 1942 Amendment, the insurance is payable to the parent or parents “who last bore that relationship.”
Finally, it is argued that the Taylors were not “dependent mother or father” within the meaning of the Act. The trial court has found from the evidence that they were dependent, and we think this finding is amply supported by the evidence. True, the Taylors owned a farm and derived some revenue from it, but they were both in their
We conclude that the Taylors were dependent father and mother, and that they last bore that relationship. The judgment is affirmed.